The Story Behind Prince's Epic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" Guitar Solo
At the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, an all-star band was put together to celebrate George Harrison's induction. Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison, and Prince were among the artists making up the band. Performing The Beatles classic ,"While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Prince's guitar solo at the end of the song spans three minutes and represents some of his finest work.
Rumor has it that Prince utilized the national stage to show off his guitar chops after not being named to Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. While this has never been confirmed, you could reasonably see how this would be the case with the emotion he played with.
The New York Times published a fascinating account of how it all came together back in 2016. Essentially, Joel Gallen (producer and director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony) thought of the idea of bringing everyone up on stage to perform the track with Prince taking the solos. Prince was inducted into the Hall of Fame that year, which is how Gallen got the idea.
Source: Marty Rosenbaum/wxrt.radio.com
